Can He Change?
by knithsil1
Summary: James loves Lily, Lily hates James. She tells him she will stop hating him if he changes, just one question, can he? What happens when he does? Will she finally say yes to him? Follow the lives of the Marauders and Lily through their seventh year. LJ
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Well this is my first attempt at a James/Lily fanfiction. If any readers out there write J/L then leave a review with advice and criticisms. Anyway I hope you all enjoy it. Onwards…**

Chapter 1- He's what?

It was 10.45 am on the first of September. That is when our story begins. James Potter had just broken through the barrier onto the station with his best friend Sirius Black. He stood at 6ft exactly making him one of the taller people in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He had untidy jet black hair which stood up at the back and due to many years of playing Quidditch had a well toned physique. He was, needless to say an attractive person and he knew it, it had made him arrogant to some extent, at least to some people, but this year he was changed.

Sirius Black was about an inch taller, also with black hair, but it was more tamed than James'. He may not play Quidditch for the team but he did stay in shape. He was undoubtedly the object of many young women's affections and he was aware of it. It was unheard for Sirius Black to be without a girlfriend for more than a week. Whenever Sirius was around James would not have the full attention of any girls who he was trying to 'talk to' but he was fine about it. There was only girl at the school he was _really_ interested in. She was also one of the only girls who did not fancy Sirius but that came as a bonus. Her name was Lily Evans.

Lily Evans was in the Prefect's carriage at the front of the Hogwarts Express. She had long, dark red hair and stood at about 5ft 8. It was 10.45 and there were fifteen minutes to go before the train left. She had been made Head Girl and was awaiting the arrival of the Head Boy. She tapped her foot impatiently. He should have been there ten minutes ago so they could get their instructions off the driver. In her head she ran through the list of male Prefects in her year, trying to think of which one would be made Head Boy.

The door opened and a boy of average height with brown hair called Remus Lupin walked in. She looked at him. _She_ wouldn't have picked him herself, mainly because he was friends with that troublemaker Potter, but she could think of worse people to work with.

"Where have you been, we should have gotten our instructions from the driver ten minutes ago" Lily scolded him. He gave her an apologetic smile.

"Sorry Lily, you've got the wrong person" Remus said mildly.

She stared at him in disbelief for a moment.

"What do you mean?" she asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"I'm not Head Boy?" he said simply.

Lily stood there in shock for a moment. "Who is then?"

"Well, it's James" he said nervously.

"James, there aren't any Prefects named James" she said dismissively.

"Well he wasn't a prefect" Remus said. Before Lily could process what he said James Potter walked into the carriage.

"Thanks for showing me the way Moony" he said sarcastically before stopping and looking around. "Wow, you could have stayed here during these train journeys? Why did you come back to our crappy cars? All that's there is Padfoot playing tonsil tennis with some bird or Wormtail begging us for a game of chess" he stopped talking when he saw Lily, "Oh hi Evans" he said, grinning.

Lily stared at him with her mouth open for a moment, shock etched on her face. James chuckled "I know I'm breathtakingly handsome Evans but are you going to talk to us anytime soon?" he asked with a laugh.

She seemed to struggle with herself for a moment before she found her voice. "What are you doing here?" she breathed.

"I'm Head Boy, according to the letter I got" James said, presenting a letter in his hand before putting it in his pocket.

"You're lying, you don't even have a badge" she spat, pointing to her own badge pinned to the front of her robes, and she noted with distaste that he did not have his robes on yet. To her surprise he pulled out a golden badge with the Hogwarts crest and HB on the front. He gave it to her and on the back it read 'James Potter, Gryffindor, Head Boy'. She stared at it in her hand before he reached out and took it back, his hand resting for just a moment longer than usual.

"Wow Lily Evans is wrong for the first time! Can we use your memory for our Pensieve Moony? Mine may distort the facts a bit" James said with a grin.

"What; like you and Lily making out?" Remus joked. This seemed to alert Lily because she promptly made a disgusted face.

"So partner, what do we do first?" James asked putting an arm around Lily. She swatted it away angrily.

"If we _have_ to work together then you will _not_ refer to me as anything but my name _Potter_!" she hissed.

"Can that be omitted from the memory Moony?" James asked quickly and Remus laughed.

"Sorry Prongs, no can do, don't plan on living this down when Padfoot sees this."

"Secondly," Lily continued as if there had been no interruption, "We have to go and get our instructions from the driver, now come on!"

Ten minutes later James and Lily stood in front of all of the Prefects. Lily was talking to them giving them instructions while James and Severus were having a glaring contest. People were actually moving out of the way of their line of sight. When the meeting was over Lily disappeared before James could approach her. Remus came over to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Maybe this year Prongs" he said consolingly. For the past few years James had been asking Lily out and every time she turned him down, she was the only girl ever to do so and she was the only girl he actually wanted to be with. Remus was perhaps the only one who could guess how much James liked her, apart from Sirius, but Sirius had a rather different take on relationships and was known among many of the men at Hogwarts as a player, and Peter, well Peter had yet to even _kiss_ a girl so he didn't really count in relationship conversations.

James shrugged Remus' hand off and shook his head. "Let's go find Sirius and Peter" he said dejectedly and Remus nodded. They arrived at the compartment to see a girl leaving with a smile on her face and when they got in Sirius' hair was messed up and he was grinning. "Been making good use of your spare time then?" James huffed.

"What's wrong with you?" Sirius asked, noting his best friend's mood. James didn't answer; he just stared out of the window.

"Lily" Remus answered and comprehension dawned on Sirius' face.

"Ouch, turned you down already?" he asked cautiously. James was never in the best of moods after he talked to Lily, usually because she turned him down for a date, or insulted him.

"Didn't get the chance to ask, left before I could ask her" he said in a depressed monotone.

"Well don't the Heads have their own common room and dormitories?" Sirius asked and James nodded, "Great, just ask her there. Oh and can I borrow you're room next week?" Sirius asked

"Why?" James asked confused.

"Alyssa" Sirius said simply. James grinned and shook his head.

The rest of the train journey passed without incident other than James and Sirius destroying each other at chess and Wormtail singeing his eyebrows in a game of exploding snap. In the Welcoming Feast Lily purposely sat as far away from James as possible but when he walked into their common room she started to walk away but he grabbed her wrist.

"Look I know you don't like me but can we leave that out of our Head duties?" he asked quietly.

"Fine but stay away from me other than when you have to!" she said angrily and she twisted her wrist free and started to walk away bur James caught up and took hold of her arm and turned her to face him, but not roughly.

"Why do you hate me Evans?" he asked, trying to look her in the eye.

"Because of what you do" she said simply before pulling her arm free and walking up the stairs.

"When will you stop hating me?" James called after her. She turned around and looked him in the eye and he held the gaze.

"When you change" she said before turning on her heel and disappearing into her dorm. James stood there for a long time thinking of what she had just said.

"Well that makes things easier" he said aloud. "Great, now I'm talking to myself. See what you do to me Evans?" he said again. With one last look at her door he turned and went to his dorm. Just after he closed his door Lily opened hers and looked at the empty common room.

"Great, I'm hearing things" she muttered before closing her door quietly.

**A/N: Well a short chapter just to start me off, I'll just write them as long as I can, but I won't stretch them by putting crap in them (any people about to flame me don't use that!) Anyway please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Well I don't know how many of you will continue to read this story but I will continue to write it! Erm, not much to say for this chapter, enjoy.**

Chapter 2- This is…interesting

The next morning Lily came down the stairs from her room to find James fully dressed and writing something on a piece of parchment.

"That better not be a plan for a prank" Lily warned but James just gave her a lopsided smile and wiped the parchment clean.

"Ah, but what if it was for a good cause Evans?" James said, grinning.

Lily eyed him warily. "There is no such thing as a prank for a good cause"

"What about the time we turned Snape's bench in Potions into a bathtub?" James asked innocently.

"What good cause did that have?" Lily scoffed.

"Snape smelled. We thought we were doing everyone a favour. You can't say that Snape smelling of lemons was worse than him smelling like he usually does" James insisted.

"And what would that be exactly?" Lily asked.

"Slughorn's arse" James said with a completely straight face and Lily had to bite back a laugh.

James looked at his watch. "Hmm, we'd better get to breakfast, can't have the Head Girl late on the first day of school can we?" He said grinning.

"What time is it?" Lily said, looking for her watch only to find it gone.

"Oh, quarter past eight" James said calmly.

"WHAT???" Lily shrieked, "WE ONLY HAVE TEN MINUTES UNTIL WE GET OUR TIMETABLES, THAT'S NOT ENOUGH TIME TO GET DOWN THERE!!" Lily then ran out of the Portrait hole with her bag. James rolled his eyes and followed her and caught up with her just as she entered the corridor, he jogged up to her and grabbed her arm.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING POTTER? I'M GOING TO BE LATE!" Lily shouted at him.

"Well, you will be if you go that way" James said mysteriously. Lily's eyes narrowed.

"What do you mean Potter?" she hissed.

"Well how about you trust me enough to show you" he said, offering her his hand. She took it and he set off at a brisk pace. He took her to a secluded corridor and up to a statue of an old witch who was bent over a book. He reached up and touched her eye with his wand and the witch opened up revealing a corridor.

"Ladies first" James offered and Lily nervously entered. After a few minutes of walking she found herself at a tapestry, she was about to push it aside when James held her back. She briefly heard him light his wand and murmur something she couldn't quite hear. "The coast is clear, go on" he urged and she went out, she managed to hear him say 'managed' but that was it before he joined her. They walked for another moment before they were standing outside the Great Hall and they joined the other students who were filing in.

"Impressive Potter" muttered Lily, "But don't think that thi-"

It was at this moment that Sirius came running up to them and grabbed James, who gave Lily and the Great Hall a look, "Ah, got to go, bye Evans!" he called over his shoulder.

Lily watched James and Sirius run off before turning back confusedly and making her way into the hall, just in time to see the Slytherin table become engulfed in a huge cloud of white smoke, which when cleared left all the students wearing dresses with the Gryffindor lion adorning them. Professor Slughorn was seen running out of the hall in a particularly spectacular dress calling after the two of them "POTTER! BLACK! GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!" his voice heard echoing through the halls.

The whole hall erupted into cheers and laughter, Lily bit back a laugh and instead forced her thoughts onto reprimanding James later. She took her timetable from Professor McGonagall.

"Seeing as Mr Potter is otherwise engaged perhaps you could bring him his timetable?" she asked, and Lily groaned seeing that they shared all their classes together this year, seeing as she had given up Divination at the end of last year.

"I ask this time and again Remus, why do you hang out with such…with such" Lily said to Remus as she helped herself to what was on the table.

"Hooligans?" Remus offered

"Exactly! It's the first day back and they have already set off a prank, not to mention that Potter is now Head Boy and seems to show no sign of even _touching_ his responsibilities!..." Lily continued her tirade all through breakfast and her mood had not abated by the time her first lesson Double Charms came around, and seeing Potter standing there with Black launched her into it all over again.

When she had finally finished, James shrugged his shoulders and gave a noticeable sigh. "Alright I'm sorry Evans. Hard to break the habit of a lifetime but I guess you are right, the least I can do is try" he said, a bit dejectedly.

Lily stared, a bit taken aback at James' statement. This was the first time he had shown something that resembled regret for pulling a prank, not to mention that he had admitted _she_ was right about it, which of course she was, wasn't she?

Of course I am, she thought to herself. _Somebody_ needs to keep a level head anyway. She was startled from her reverie by the rest of the class jostling to get into the classroom, and as she took her place, as far away from Potter as possible naturally, she still managed to notice the change in his behaviour in the lesson. It's just one lesson, she told herself, if he kept it up then maybe… maybe what? She would not refer to him on a last name basis for once? No matter, it won't last, she thought content in her knowledge of James' personality, because after all, surely a troublemaker like him can't change.

How wrong Lily Evans was. Over the next week James carried this new (and in her eyes) improved behaviour of his up, although Sirius never lost a moment to lament the loss of 'Prongs as we knew him'. She couldn't help noticing how even some of the teachers were perhaps a bit disappointed in the absence of the Potter-Black pranks to which they had become accustomed.

It was the same after school hours as well, when in their dormitory James would spend most of his time either doing his homework or hanging out with his other three friends, apart from Sirius requiring James' room for one night. It finally got to Sunday night when they were preparing to brief the Prefects that she broached the topic.

"What are you playing at Potter?" she asked as he prepared to leave the room.

"Huh?" he replied, clearly confused.

"You have been _behaving_ all week! What is behind it?"

"Oh how terrible of me" he replied, sounding irritable, the first time she had ever heard him sound like that towards her.

"Don't take that tone with me" she said, feeling her temper rising, "After all you haven't exactly got the best track record have you?"

"Oh well excuse me for trying to take the great Lily Evans' advice!" he replied scathingly "I mean after all it is impossible for anyone to be on first name terms with her if they have so much as thought of doing something to lighten everyone's moods, not to mention stinging some prats in the process!"

Lily's eyes widened in shock, more at the change James had taken on her. Having no reply to him, James stormed out of the room and left Lily gaping after him. She suddenly gave a start and hurried after him.

All through the meeting they did not speak to each other, but Lily couldn't help feel how cold James seemed to be towards her. Is this what she was like to him all the time? No, she told herself, and even if I was, he deserves it! After all I have every reason for not trusting this 'New James', don't I?

She was not doing very well at convincing herself, and barely noticed as the Prefects filed out of the room, only one staying behind, who she vaguely recalled being a girl from Ravenclaw in the year below. Lily left the room deep in thought but stopped in her tracks as she remembered she forgot her bag.

She hurried back into the room only to find James and the girl from Ravenclaw standing very close together. She seemed slightly pink and James had a look of shock on his face. Lily stared at the scene before finding her voice.

"I left my bag…" she said weakly and James sprung away from the girl, who hurried from the room. Quietly Lily picked up her bag and left for the dormitory, only to find James already there when she entered. Instead of interrogating him into how he managed to get there before her she simply went straight to her room.

Lily laid in her bed that night thinking about the scene's that had gone on. First James actually getting angry with her, and then the compromising position he had been in with the girl from Ravenclaw. She isn't all that pretty Lily thought, before instantly becoming horrified at her own inner voice. She couldn't ignore that the scene had…disturbed her, but only because never, in all the time she had been at Hogwarts, had James Potter ever displayed an interest in a girl beside herself. That had to be the reason. Right?

**And there we go! It has taken me ages to get this up, well from when the first chapter was posted. It is also the first I have written since deciding to write again, this chapter was already partially written so I was just finishing it off really, but should help me get back into things. Tell me what you think guys!**


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